Chiral Anomaly Research Articles

Quantum Flag Manifold $$\sigma $$-Models and Hermitian Ricci Flow

We show that flag manifold $$\sigma $$ -models (including $$\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^{n-1}$$ , Grassmannian models as special cases) and their deformed versions may be cast in the form of gauged bosonic Thirring/Gross-Neveu-type systems. Quantum mechanically the gauging is violated by chiral anomalies, which may be cancelled by adding fermions. We conjecture that such models are integrable and check on some examples that the trigonometrically deformed geometries satisfy the generalized Ricci flow equations.

Cooper-Frye sampling with short-range repulsion

This work incorporates the effect of short-range repulsion between particles into the Cooper-Frye hadron sampling procedure. This is achieved by means of a rejection sampling step, which prohibits any pair of particles from overlapping in the coordinate space, effectively modeling the effect of hard-core repulsion. The new procedure---called the fist sampler---is based on the package thermal-fist. It is used here to study the effect of excluded volume on cumulants of the (net-)proton number distribution in central collisions of heavy ions in a broad collision energy range in conjunction with exact global conservation of baryon number, electric charge, and strangeness. The results are compared with earlier calculations based on analytical approximations, quantifying the accuracy of the latter at different collision energies. An additional advantage of the new method over the analytic approaches is that it offers the flexibility provided by event generators, making it straightforwardly extendable to other observables.

Introduction to Electroweak Baryogenesis

We present a pedagogical introduction to the electroweak baryogenesis. The review focuses principally on the sphaleron and baryon number (non)-conservation or chiral anomaly. All results are derived with details for a self-contained reading.

Fujikawa's Jacobian and Berry's phase for fermion-hopping models defined on lattices

After briefly reviewing Fujikawa's derivation of a chiral anomaly, we study fermions hopping on a lattice. Under the specific conditions considered in this paper, we show that a chiral gauge transformation induces a Berry's phase which is equal to Fujikawa's Jacobian.

Strangeness thermodynamic instabilities in hot and dense nuclear matter

We explore the presence of thermodynamic instabilities and, consequently, the realization of a pure hadronic phase transition in the hot and finite baryon density nuclear matter. The analysis is performed by means of an effective relativistic mean-field model with the inclusion of hyperons, varDelta -isobars, and the lightest pseudoscalar and vector meson degrees of freedom. The Gibbs conditions on the global conservation of baryon number and zero net strangeness in symmetric nuclear matter are required. Similarly to the liquid–gas phase transition, we show that a phase transition, characterized by mechanical instabilities (due to fluctuations on the baryon number) and chemical-diffusive instabilities (due to fluctuations on the strangeness number), can take place for a finite range of varDelta -meson coupling constants, compatible with different experimental constraints. The hadronic phase transition, which presents similar features to the quark-hadron phase transition, is characterized by different strangeness content during the mixed phase and, consequently, by a sensible variation of the strange anti-particle to particle ratios.

Formation of a chiral soliton lattice

The Chiral Soliton Lattice (CSL) is a lattice structure composed of domain walls aligned in parallel at equal intervals, which is energetically stable in the presence of a background magnetic field and a finite (baryon) chemical potential due to the topological term originated from the chiral anomaly. We study its formation from the vacuum state, with describing the CSL as a layer of domain-wall disks surrounded by the vortex or string loop, based on the Nambu-Goto-type effective theory. We show that the domain wall nucleates via quantum tunneling when the magnetic field is strong enough. We evaluate its nucleation rate and determine the critical magnetic field strength with which the nucleation rate is no longer exponentially suppressed. We apply this analysis to the neutral pion in the two-flavor QCD as well as the axion-like particles (ALPs) with a finite (baryon) chemical potential under an external magnetic field. In the former case, even though the CSL state is more energetically stable than the vacuum state and the nucleation rate becomes larger for sufficiently strong magnetic field, it cannot be large enough so that the nucleation of the domain walls is not exponentially suppressed and promoted, without suffering from the tachyonic instability of the charged pion fluctuations. In the latter case, we confirm that the effective interaction of the ALPs generically includes the topological term required for the CSL state to be energetically favored. We show that the ALP CSL formation is promoted if the magnetic field strength and the chemical potential of the system is slightly larger than the scale of the axion decay constant.

Shear-induced anomalous transport and charge asymmetry of triangular flow in heavy-ion collisions

Chiral anomaly implies the existence of non-dissipative transport phenomena, such as the chiral magnetic effect. At second order in the derivative expansion, novel quantum transport phenomena emerge. In this paper, we focus on the anomalous transport driven by a combination of shear, vorticity and magnetic field. We find that the corresponding transport phenomena -- shear-induced chiral magnetic and chiral vortical effects (siCME and siCVE) -- induce characteristic charge correlations among the hadrons produced in heavy ion collisions. We propose the charge asymmetry of triangular flow as a signature of the anomalous transport, and estimate the strength of the signal, as well as the background, using hydrodynamical model simulations. We find that the signal-to-background ratio for the proposed observable is favorable for experimental detection.

Hamilton principle for chiral anomalies in hydrodynamics

We developed the spacetime-covariant Hamilton principle for barotropic flows of a perfect fluid in the external axial-vector potential conjugate to the helicity current. Such flows carry helicity, a chiral imbalance, controlled by the axial potential. The interest in such a setting is motivated by the recent observation that the axial-current anomaly of quantum field theories with Dirac fermions appears as a kinematic property of classical hydrodynamics. Especially interesting effects occur under the simultaneous actions of the electromagnetic field and the axial-vector potential. With the help of the Hamilton principle, we obtain the extension of the Euler equations by the axial potential and derive anomalies in the divergence of the axial and vector current. Our approach provides a hydrodynamic expression for vector and axial currents and lays down a platform for studying flows with a chiral imbalance and their anomalies.

Closing in on critical net-baryon fluctuations at LHC energies: Cumulants up to third order in Pb–Pb collisions

Fluctuation measurements are important sources of information on the mechanism of particle production at LHC energies. This article reports the first experimental results on third-order cumulants of the net-proton distributions in Pb–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy sNN=5.02 TeV recorded by the ALICE detector. The results on the second-order cumulants of net-proton distributions at sNN=2.76 and 5.02 TeV are also discussed in view of effects due to the global and local baryon number conservation. The results demonstrate the presence of long-range rapidity correlations between protons and antiprotons. Such correlations originate from the early phase of the collision. The experimental results are compared with HIJING and EPOS model calculations, and the dependence of the fluctuation measurements on the phase-space coverage is examined in the context of lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD) and hadron resonance gas (HRG) model estimations. The measured third-order cumulants are consistent with zero within experimental uncertainties of about 4% and are described well by LQCD and HRG predictions.

Observation of boundary induced chiral anomaly bulk states and their transport properties

The most useful property of topological materials is perhaps the robust transport of topological edge modes, whose existence depends on bulk topological invariants. This means that we need to make volumetric changes to many atoms in the bulk to control the transport properties of the edges in a sample. We suggest here that we can do the reverse in some cases: the properties of the edge can be used to induce chiral transport phenomena in some bulk modes. Specifically, we show that a topologically trivial 2D hexagonal phononic crystal slab (waveguide) bounded by hard-wall boundaries guarantees the existence of bulk modes with chiral anomaly inside a pseudogap due to finite size effect. We experimentally observed robust valley-selected transport, complete valley state conversion, and valley focusing of the chiral anomaly bulk states (CABSs) in such phononic crystal waveguides. The same concept also applies to electromagnetics.

Non-Hermitian chiral anomalies

The chiral anomaly underlies a broad number of phenomena, from enhanced electronic transport in topological metals to anomalous currents in the quark-gluon plasma. The discovery of topological states of matter in non-Hermitian systems -- effective descriptions of dissipative systems -- raises the question of whether there are anomalous conservation laws that remain unaccounted for. To answer this question, we consider both $1+1$ and $3+1$ dimensions, presenting a unified formulation to calculate anomalous responses in Hermitianized, anti-Hermitianized and non-Hermitian systems of massless electrons with complex Fermi velocities coupled to non-Hermitian gauge fields. Our results indicate that the quantum conservation laws of chiral currents of non-Hermitian systems are not related to those in Hermitianized and anti-Hermitianized systems, as would be expected classically, due to novel anomalous terms that we derive. These may have implications for a broad class of emerging experimental systems that realize non-Hermitian Hamiltonians.

High-mobility two-dimensional carriers from surface Fermi arcs in magnetic Weyl semimetal films

High-mobility two-dimensional carriers originating from surface Fermi arcs in magnetic Weyl semimetals are highly desired for accessing exotic quantum transport phenomena and for topological electronics applications. Here, we demonstrate high-mobility two-dimensional carriers that show quantum oscillations in magnetic Weyl semimetal SrRuO3 epitaxial films by systematic angle-dependent, high-magnetic field magnetotransport experiments. The exceptionally high-quality SrRuO3 films were grown by state-of-the-art oxide thin film growth technologies driven by machine-learning algorithm. The quantum oscillations for the 10-nm SrRuO3 film show a high quantum mobility of 3.5 × 103 cm2/Vs, a light cyclotron mass, and two-dimensional angular dependence, which possibly come from the surface Fermi arcs. The linear thickness dependence of the phase shift of the quantum oscillations provides evidence for the non-trivial nature of the quantum oscillations mediated by the surface Fermi arcs. In addition, at low temperatures and under magnetic fields of up to 52 T, the quantum limit of SrRuO3 manifests the chiral anomaly of the Weyl nodes. Emergence of the hitherto hidden two-dimensional Weyl states in a ferromagnetic oxide paves the way to explore quantum transport phenomena for topological oxide electronics.

Hydrodynamic Manifestations of Gravitational Chiral Anomaly.

The conservation of an axial current modified by the gravitational chiral anomaly implies the universal transport phenomenon (kinematical vortical effect) dependent solely on medium vorticity and acceleration, but not dependent explicitly on its temperature and density. This general analysis is verified for the case of massless fermions with spin-1/2.

Consequences of neutron decay inside neutron stars

The hypothesis that neutrons might decay into dark matter is explored using neutron stars as a testing ground. It is found that in order to obtain stars with masses at the upper end of those observed, the dark matter must experience a relatively strong self-interaction. Conservation of baryon number and energy then require that the star must undergo some heating, with a decrease in radius, leading to an increase in speed of rotation over a period of days.

Understanding anomalous particle production in massless QED via time-varying θ angle

The Maxwell equations imply that, under the background of non-zero B, varying θ term produces E·B. An interesting example is the Witten effect where a magnetic monopole becomes a dyon which, however, should disappear in the exact massless limit of the fermion. Underlying mechanism of this phenomenon has been understood by Callan by the presence of an effective axion-like degree of freedom around the monopole, which is roughly the phase of the fermions. The configuration of this axion cancels the effect of the θ term. Now, the chiral anomaly implies that non-vanishing E·B induces the chiral charge in the system. The question is whether the chiral charge is generated in the massless limit when we take into account the axion-like degree of freedom in the discussion. The discussion is relevant for the mechanism of baryogenesis under the background of time-dependent θ. We solve the system of the massless QED with time dependent θ by reducing it to the two-dimensional QED. We demonstrate the occurrence of chiral charge generation in the background of static magnetic field for two cases: a magnetic monopole and a uniform magnetic flux. For the monopole case, the chiral charge comes out from the monopole while canceling the Witten effect. For the case of the uniform flux, on the other hand, the effect of the backreaction cannot be ignored, giving a more non-trivial time dependence. We also discuss their implications on baryogenesis.

Chiral anomaly induces superconducting baryon crystal

It was previously shown within chiral perturbation theory that the ground state of QCD in a sufficiently large magnetic field and at nonvanishing, but not too large, baryon chemical potential is a so-called chiral soliton lattice. The crucial ingredient of this observation was the chiral anomaly in the form of a Wess-Zumino-Witten term, which couples the baryon chemical potential to the magnetic field and the gradient of the neutral pion field. It was also shown that the chiral soliton lattice becomes unstable towards charged pion condensation at larger magnetic fields. We point out that this instability bears a striking resemblance to the second critical magnetic field of a type-II superconductor, however with the superconducting phase appearing upon increasing the magnetic field. The resulting phase has a periodically varying charged pion condensate that coexists with a neutral pion supercurrent. We construct this phase analytically in the chiral limit and show that it is energetically preferred. Just like an ordinary type-II superconductor, it exhibits a hexagonal array of magnetic flux tubes, and, due to the chiral anomaly, a spatially oscillating baryon number of the same crystalline structure.

Chiral anomaly induced magnetoconductances in an irradiated type-I Weyl semimetal

Magneto conductivities in Weyl semimetals (WSMs) in presence of small fields are studied using quasi-classical Boltzmann transport equations. Following such formalism here we consider irradiation via circularly polarized light on a two-node time reversal breaking WSM already under a dc/static electric field and study the magneto-transport properties due to the presence of chiral anomaly. Chiral anomaly affects both longitudinal magnetoconductivity as well as planar Hall conductivity. As our field set-up causes continuous time variation in the relative orientation between the fields, one naturally expects interesting magneto-transport behavior for different field strengths and tilting. The type-I tilting that we study here displays both positive and negative magnetoconductances depending on the field strengths and time. Furthermore, we find that a direct temporal tuning of the irradiated field strengths can lead to fluctuating magneto-transport behavior which can be easily improvised and checked in the laboratories.

Dynamical signatures of point-gap Weyl semimetal

We demonstrate a few unique dynamical properties of point-gap Weyl semimetal, an intrinsic non-Hermitian topological phase in three dimensions. We consider a concrete model where a pair of Weyl points reside on the imaginary axis of the complex energy plane, opening up a point gap characterized by a topological invariant, the three-winding number $W_3$. This gives rise to surface spectra and dynamical responses that differ fundamentally from those in Hermitian Weyl semimetals. First, we predict a time-dependent current flow along the magnetic field in the absence of an electric field, in sharp contrast to the current driven by the chiral anomaly, which requires both electric and magnetic fields. Second, we reveal a novel type of boundary-skin mode in the wire geometry which becomes localized at two corners of the wire cross section. We explain its origin and show its experimental signatures in wave-packet dynamics.

Projected topological branes

Nature harbors crystals of dimensionality (d) only up to three. Here we introduce the notion of projected topological branes (PTBs): Lower-dimensional branes embedded in higher-dimensional parent topological crystals, constructed via a geometric cut-and-project procedure on the Hilbert space of the parent lattice Hamiltonian. When such a brane is inclined at a rational or an irrational slope, either a new lattice periodicity or a quasicrystal emerges. The latter gives birth to topoquasicrystals within the landscape of PTBs. As such PTBs are shown to inherit the hallmarks, such as the bulk-boundary and bulk-dislocation correspondences, and topological invariant, of the parent topological crystals. We exemplify these outcomes by focusing on two-dimensional parent Chern insulators, leaving its signatures on projected one-dimensional (1D) topological branes in terms of localized endpoint modes, dislocation modes and the local Chern number. Finally, by stacking 1D projected Chern insulators, we showcase the imprints of three-dimensional Weyl semimetals in d = 2, namely the Fermi arc surface states and bulk chiral zeroth Landau level, responsible for the chiral anomaly. Altogether, the proposed PTBs open a realistic avenue to harness higher-dimensional (d > 3) topological phases in laboratory.

Baryogenesis from combined Higgs–scalar field inflation

We study a modification of the Higgs inflation scenario where we introduce an extra scalar $\phi$, with mass $m$, coupled to the Ricci scalar as $g\phi^2 R$, and mixed with the Higgs field $h$ via the Lagrangian term $\mu \phi h^2$. Both fields participate in the inflation process in a unitary theory that predicts values of the cosmological observables in agreement with the results from the Planck/BICEP/Keck collaborations. In addition, by means of a $\mathcal{CP}$-odd effective operator that couples $\phi$ to the Chern-Simons term of the hypercharge gauge group as $f_\phi^{-1}\phi \,Y_{\mu\nu}\tilde Y^{\mu\nu}$, maximally helical magnetic fields are produced during the last $e$-folds of inflation. We found a window in the coupling $ f_\phi$ where these fields survive all constraints until the electroweak phase transition, and source the baryon asymmetry of the Universe through the Standard Model chiral anomaly. From a phenomenological perspective, the model can solve the Standard Model instability problem at the scale $\mathcal Q_I\simeq 10^{11}$ GeV, provided that $\mu\lesssim m \lesssim \mathcal Q_I$, and for $m\lesssim \mathcal{O}$(few)~TeV, the $\phi$-$h$ mixing becomes sizable while the theory turns natural. The latter thus predicts modifications of the trilinear and quartic couplings that could be explored at the HE-LHC, as well as at future colliders, and allows for direct $\phi$ production at the LHC followed by decay into $hh$. Present results from ATLAS and CMS already put (mild) bounds on the mass of the heavy scalar as $m\gtrsim 0.55$~TeV at 95\% C.L.